A study on the axisymmetric near-contact motion of drops with tangentially mobile interfaces under the action of a body force in a quiescent fluid is described. A long-time asymptotic analysis is presented for small-deformation conditions. Under these conditions the drops are nearly spherical, except in the near-contact region, where a flattened thin film forms. According to our analysis, a hydrostatic dome does not form in the near-contact region at long times, in contrast to the assumption underlying all previous analyses of this problem. Instead, the shape of the film in the near-contact region results from the absence of tangential stresses acting on it. As a result, the long-time behaviour of the system is qualitatively different than previously predicted. According to the theory presented herein, the minimum film thickness (rim region) decays with time as ${h}_{m} \sim {t}^{- 4/ 5} $, and the thickness at the centre of the film decays as ${h}_{0} \sim {t}^{- 3/ 5} $, which is a faster decay than predicted by prior analyses based on a hydrostatic dome. Numerical thin-film simulations quantitatively confirm the predictions of our small-deformation theory. Boundary-integral simulations of the full two-drop problem suggest that the theory also describes qualitatively the long-time evolution under finite-deformation conditions.

Local linear stability analysis has been shown to provide valuable information about the response of jet diffusion flames to flow-field perturbations. However, this analysis commonly relies on several modelling assumptions about the mean flow prescription, the thermo-viscous-diffusive transport properties, and the complexity and representation of the chemical reaction mechanisms. In this work, the effects of these modelling assumptions on the stability behaviour of a jet diffusion flame are systematically investigated. A flamelet formulation is combined with linear stability theory to fully account for the effects of complex transport properties and the detailed reaction chemistry on the perturbation dynamics. The model is applied to a methane–air jet diffusion flame that was experimentally investigated by Füri et al. (Proc. Combust. Inst., vol. 29, 2002, pp. 1653–1661). Detailed simulations are performed to obtain mean flow quantities, about which the stability analysis is performed. Simulation results show that the growth rate of the inviscid instability mode is insensitive to the representation of the transport properties at low frequencies, and exhibits a stronger dependence on the mean flow representation. The effects of the complexity of the reaction chemistry on the stability behaviour are investigated in the context of an adiabatic jet flame configuration. Comparisons with a detailed chemical-kinetics model show that the use of a one-step chemistry representation in combination with a simplified viscous-diffusive transport model can affect the mean flow representation and heat release location, thereby modifying the instability behaviour. This is attributed to the shift in the flame structure predicted by the one-step chemistry model, and is further exacerbated by the representation of the transport properties. A pinch-point analysis is performed to investigate the stability behaviour; it is shown that the shear-layer instability is convectively unstable, while the outer buoyancy-driven instability mode transitions from absolutely to convectively unstable in the nozzle near field, and this transition point is dependent on the Froude number.

Spin-coating is a process used to fabricate thin films for device applications. In this paper, lubrication theory is used to derive an axisymmetric model for the spin-coating of two immiscible vertically stratified Newtonian thin films. The model includes gravitational, van der Waals, capillary and viscous forces, differences in liquid layer properties and evaporation/condensation effects. Thinning calculations focus on the effects of viscosity and condensation/evaporation. In this case, for layers of uniform thickness, the lower layer thins monotonically yet never reaches zero thickness. With evaporation mass loss the upper layer disappears in finite time, whereas with condensation effects the upper layer approaches a steady-state thickness. Fully nonlinear calculations are carried out for films with non-uniform thickness and the deviation of the interfaces from the flat state is monitored. In general, disturbances to the lower layer have a greater effect on the upper layer than those of disturbances of the upper layer on the lower layer. Disturbances along the upper gas–liquid free surface propagate outward more rapidly than those along the lower liquid–liquid interface and disturbances that decrease the film thickness tend to dissipate more slowly.

A numerical simulation is performed to study the velocity, streamlines, vorticity and shear stress distributions in viscous water waves with different wave steepness in intermediate and deep water depth when the average wind velocity is zero. The numerical results present evidence of ‘clockwise’ and ‘anticlockwise’ rotation of the fluid at the trough and crest of the water waves. These results show thicker vorticity layers near the surface of water wave than that predicted by the theories of inviscid rotational flow and the low Reynolds number viscous flow. Moreover, the magnitude of vorticity near the free surface is much larger than that predicted by these theories. The analysis of the shear stress under water waves show a thick shear layer near the water surface where large shear stress exists. Negative and positive shear stresses are observed near the surface below the crest and trough of the waves, while the maximum positive shear stress is inside the water and below the crest of the water wave. Comparison of wave energy decay rate in intermediate depth and deep water waves with laboratory and theoretical results are also presented.

G. I. Taylor's solution in 1910 for the interior structure of a weak shock wave is, with appropriate generalization, an essential component of weak-shock theory. The Taylor balance between nonlinear convection and thermoviscous diffusion is, however, endangered when other linear mechanisms - such as density stratification, geometrical spreading effects, tube wall attenuation and dispersion, etc. - are included. The ways in which some of these linear mechanisms cause the Taylor shock structure to break down when a weak shock has propagated over a large (and in some cases quite moderate) distance will be studied. Different forms of breakdown of the Taylor shock structure will be identified, both for quadratic (gasdynamic) nonlinearity and also for cubic nonlinearity appropriate to transverse waves in solid media or electromagnetic waves in nonlinear dielectrics. From this a description will be given of the fate of a nonlinear wave containing a pattern of weak shock waves, as it propagates over large ranges under the influence of linear and nonlinear mechanisms.

An asymptotic analysis for the long-time unsteady laminar far wake of a bluff body due to a step change in its travelling velocity from U1 to U2 is presented. For U1 [ges ] 0 and U2 > 0, the laminar wake consists of a new wake of volume flux Q2 corresponding to the current velocity U2, an old wake of volume flux Q1 corresponding to the original velocity U1, and a transition zone that connects these two wakes. The transition zone acts as a sink (or a source) of volume flux (Q2 – Q1) and is moving away from the body at speed U2. Streamwise diffusion is negligible in the new and old wakes but a matched asymptotic expansion that retains the streamwise diffusion is required to determine the vorticity transport in the transition zone. A source of volume flux Q2 located near the body needs to be superposed on the unsteady wake to form the global flow field around the body. The asymptotic predictions for the unsteady wake velocity, unsteady wake vorticity, and the global flow field around the body agree well with finite difference solutions for flow over a sphere at finite Reynolds numbers. The long-time unsteady flow structures due to a sudden stop (U2 = 0) and an impulsive reverse (U1U2 < 0) of the body are analysed in detail based on the asymptotic solutions for the unsteady wakes and the finite difference solutions. The elucidation of the long-time behaviour of such unsteady flows provides a framework for understanding the long-time particle dynamics at finite Reynolds number.

A weakly nonlinear Hamiltonian model is derived from the exact water wave equations to study the time evolution of spatially periodic wavetrains. The model assumes that the spatial spectrum of the wavetrain is formed by only three free waves, i.e. a carrier and two side bands. The model has the same symmetries and invariances as the exact equations. As a result, it is found that not only the permanent form travelling waves and their stability are important in describing the time evolution of the waves, but also a new kind of family of solutions which has two basic frequencies plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the waves. It is also shown that three is the minimum number of free waves which is necessary to have chaotic behaviour of water waves.

The ordinary differential equation $\epsilon^2 \ddot{y} + \epsilon^2 \delta \dot{y} = y^2 - \cos t - 1 - c$ which represents forced water waves on shallow water near resonance is considered when the dispersion ε and the constant c are small. Asymptotic and numerical methods are used to show that solutions which are bounded for all finite t can exist only if $c > - 2^{-\frac{2}{3}}\epsilon^{\frac{4}{3}}\times 1.4664 \ldots $.

The theory of Stokes flows about slender particles is considered for the case in which the particle cross-section is arbitrary and non-uniform along the axis of the particle, subject to certain smoothness assumptions. As distinct from previous works on slender particles in which the particle is represented approximately by a line distribution of Stokeslets, the representation adopted here is the exact one of a surface distribution of Stokeslets. This representation may then be used to recover the familiar one-dimensional integral equation for the equivalent line density of Stokeslets, together with estimates for the range of particle shapes for which the equation is valid. Within this range it is found that there is a class of particles for which the established perturbation scheme, which is used to obtain a solution to the integral equation, is singular. This class of particle shapes is illustrated by the example of a uniformly twisted particle whose pitch of twist is large enough compared with the cross-sectional dimension to ensure the validity of the equation, but small enough to make the usual method of solution singular. It is shown how the equation may be transformed so that an approximate solution can be found by means of a regular perturbation scheme. The results indicate that, for each of the axial and transverse components of motion, there is an equivalent particle of circular cross-section for which the total force and couple are the same as for the original particle. However, the radii of the equivalent cylinders are different for each component, the transverse component being affected by the twist while the axial component is not.

Small spheres of the same size but of relative density varying from 0·92 to 1·25 were injected in turn into a horizontal water pipe, in which the flow was turbulent and the mean velocity was constant. A cross-section near the outlet was illuminated; the positions of the spheres as they crossed it were measured by photography, and the relation was established between the terminal velocity of the of the spheres in water and the vertical diffusivity. The velocity of the spheres along the pipe was found to be somewhat different in the galvanized steel and Perspex lengths of which the pipe was composed. The dispersion of the times of transit of the spheres increased slightly with their densisty. For purposes of comparison the theoretical velocity along the pipe was also calculated from the photographic measurements.

Developed interfacial dynamics of thin film flows with moderate Reynolds numbers exhibits a remarkable feature: the evolution is dominated by solitary-like pulses with a natural large wavelength between them. This phenomenon is robust and resembles the inverse energy cascade in two-dimensional turbulence. A new simple evolution equation is proposed to describe the film flow dynamics which captures such an inverse cascade. The equation combines the simplest kinematic nonlinearity with the exact linear term. The spectral kernel of the linear term is found from the numerical solution of the associated linear stability problem.

An approximate solution is developed for two-dimensional, steady, inviscid supersonic flow over an airfoil. This approximation produces accurate results for a wide range of Mach numbers and airfoil thicknesses. It is used as the starting point for a rapidly convergent iterative numerical solution of the exact equations. A co-ordinate system consisting of the principal characteristics and streamlines is employed. Examples computed for a symmetric airfoil reveal several interesting features in the tail shock and the flow behind the airfoil.

Using a two-fluid model of gas-fluidized beds, it is shown that periodic plane voidage waves travelling against gravity are unstable to perturbations with large transverse wavelength. This secondary instability sets in at arbitrarily small amplitudes of the plane wave and correspondingly small transverse wavenumbers of the two-dimensional perturbation. More precisely, if the bed is wide enough to accommodate sufficiently long horizontal waves, then the plane wave becomes unstable as soon as its amplitude has grown to the order of the square of the transverse wavenumber. The instability can be stationary or oscillatory in nature and has its origin in the interaction between the plane wave and four least-stable modes with small transverse wavenumber. Two of them represent a pair of bubble-like ‘mixed modes‘; the other two are initially, i. e. at the onset of the primary wave, pure transverse modes, one consisting only of an initially pure vertical velocity perturbation of the state of uniform fluidization. Depending on a relation between the eigenvalues of the least-stable modes at the primary bifurcation point, either one of these can be the dominant mode, which becomes (most) unstable along the growing vertically travelling plane wave. While the transverse modes gain longitudinal structure during this process, the mixed modes obtain a vertical component of the vertically averaged velocity as well, so that it appears that the secondary instability described here is a variant of Batchelor & Nitsche's (1991) ‘overturning’ instability found recently for unbounded stratified fluids, see also Batchelor (1993).

It was shown in Part 1 of this series that in swirl-free flow there are three different types of axial causes of steady conically similar viscous flow. The three corresponding swirl-free one-parameter families of exact solutions to the Navier–Stokes equations are presented and analysed here in terms of the basic conservation principles for volume and ring circulation. The simplest is the irrotational flow generated by a uniform distribution of volume sources along a half-axis. A second, independent, one-parameter family of solutions is provided by Landau's (1943) solution, where the second moment of ring circulation about the axis is produced at the origin at a finite constant rate. Fresh insight into the nature of this flow is gained by separating and comparing the roles of the diffusion and convection terms in the flux vector for ring circulation. A similar analysis is applied to the remaining independent one-parameter family caused by an antisymmetric (about the origin) conically similar axial distribution of the singularity in Landau's solution. This simple new family of exact solutions is characterized by opposed jets neighbouring the axis of symmetry. When the axial jets are directed inwards, they always erupt into an emergent axisymmetric jet normal to the axis of symmetry. Solutions fail to exist, however, for sufficiently strong axial jets directed outwards.

Fluid motion at high Reynolds number over a flexible in-wall blip (a compliant bump or dip in an otherwise fixed wall) is considered theoretically for a very short blip buried low inside a boundary layer. Only the near-wall shear of the oncoming flow affects the local motion past the tiny blip. Slowly evolving features are examined first to allow for variations in the incident flow. Linear and nonlinear solutions show that at certain parameter values (eigenvalues) intensifications occur in which the interactive effect on flow and blip shape is larger by an order of magnitude than at most parameter values. Similar findings apply to the boundary layer with several tiny blips present or to channel flows with blips of almost any length. These intensifications lead on to fully nonlinear unsteady motion as a second stage, after some delay, thus combining with finite-time breakups to form a distinct path into transition of the flow.